Oscar's Pump Ratings With MacFarlane's Below The Belt Humor: Should A Cheap Trick Overshadow The Real Meaning Of The Awards?

Photo: style.mtv.com 

The numbers are in and ratings were up for Sunday's broadcast of the 85th Annual Academy Awards. And the big wigs are positively giddy. After many desperate attempts at making the famed awards  appeal to younger audiences, they have finally made a little head way-and in the process stirred up a little scandal.  It makes me wonder though, they may have gotten the exposure they wanted-but at what cost?

Also dropping the supposed "stuffy" "Academy Awards" prefix from all promotional materials, the now simply called "Oscars," bases their new-found viewership off host Seth MacFarlane. 

Known by many as the voice of Peter Griffin, the patriarch of the Griffin family on Fox's animated sitcom Family Guy, he certainly made an impression Sunday with his...well...interesting...humor. 

And that impression was mostly bad. Not your mama's comedian, MacFarlane picked on everybody with his usual crass-ness, placing special emphasis on women. Making them the butt of all most every single joke-and including in his act a song about actresses who have gone top-less for films entitled: "I Saw Your Boobs." 

Writers-Block-All-I-Got's-A-Recipe-Wedsnesday

I'am sorry guys. I've been running on full speed ahead all week long and I have got a terrible case of writers block. So, just so I'm not leaving you all with nothing I thought I'd pass on a recipe that I have been longing to try for a while now.

I found it on Pinterest (Where else right?) and it looks pretty simple. Its called Roasted Red Pepper Ravioli and its from Your Homebased Mom .

photo credit: Your Homebased Mom

Ingredients:


3 red bell peppers
2-3 Tbsp onion powder
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 C fresh basil
3 Tbsp olive oil
1- 1 1/2 C half and half
1 tsp cornstarch
1/3 C grated Romano or Parmesan Cheese
2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat broiler.  Cut peppers in half and remove seeds. Lightly coat the peppers with olive oil and place cut side down on cookie sheet.  Place under broiler until skin is blackened and softened.  Place in a paper bag an allow to steam for about 5-10 minutes.

Black Water Honey Must Read-Valentines Day Edition:Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation By Cokie Roberts

Happy Valentines day all you love birds! And for those of you who are like me and my sweetheart and could really care less I thought I'd share an alternative to all the sappy movies and over-abundance of heart shaped everything.

I read this book a few years ago and I fell in love with it then and was again reminded of it after my Grandmother mentioned something about it-so I looked it up and it only took reading the preview to make me remember why and how much I loved this book.

We hear so much about our Founding Fathers and their lives from what they liked to eat for midnight snacks, how many pets they had, and so on and so forth but nothing I have ever read has ever given me a clearer picture of just who these men were.


Author Cokie Roberts, through the lives, voices, and letters of our Nations early first ladies, strips away the historical barrier and gives a beautifully natural portrayal of the real everyday lives of the people responsible for "raising our nation."

Pinterest Trials # 1: Smore's Bark

OK, a couple weeks ago I got bored and (since I had all of the ingredients) I decided to try making a recipe I saw on Pinterest. I got real excited and took pictures and everything but the result was, well...you'll see.


According to the Pin, its supposed to look like this: -->



Simple enough right? Just marshmallows on top pf graham crackers with chocolate melted over them...no biggie, I can do this....

So I got my stuff together, laid out wax paper on a cookie sheet, and arranged my marshmallows like so..

At that point I was really hopeful.

I Have No Problems.....

Ever have one of those days where every time you turn around you are faced with people dealing with tough situations? I've definitely had one today. It started out with a visit to a Charleston hospital to see a family member that recently underwent major surgery. While there, I watched said family member handle pain, needles, and discomfort with gumption and grace and I couldn't fathom how they did it. 

I saw tiny little babies, that were just fighting to live another minute, children that looked like pros at the hospital thing because they had obviously spent a great deal of time there, a mother of twins that sat alone in a waiting room while one of her babies went through surgery, and I thought to myself: I have no problems.  

On the way home, I passed houses that looked dilapidated beyond reason yet people were living in them, cars that had seen their best days years ago yet people were driving them, and suddenly I was aware of others around me, and I thought again, I have no problems....(you can kind of see where this is going I'm sure)..